Slackless type drawbar assemblies have been well known in the railroad industry for several years, prior to the development of the present invention, as a means to connect together adjacently disposed ends of a pair of railway freight cars in a substantially semi-permanent fashion.
In other words, these railway freight cars do not require frequent separation during service. Normally, they will only be separated during a required repair and/or routine maintenance being performed on one or more of them.
These particular railway freight cars are normally of the type utilized in what is most commonly referred to, in the railroad industry, as dedicated service. Railway freight cars of such dedicated service type will at least include: those cars which are normally utilized to haul coal, coke, and/or various other types of raw minerals; automotive type transport carriers, tank cars which are used to transport various liquids and cars which are used in transporting various types of building materials.
Examples of some other raw minerals transported in these dedicated service railway freight cars include: various types of ore, cement and stone. The various types of liquids transported by such dedicated service railway freight cars will at least include a number of different chemicals. A number of building materials transported in this manner include: lumber, dry wall, plywood, paneling, etc.
A slackless type drawbar assembly normally comprises the following elements: a female connection member, a male connection member retained in such female connection member, a drawbar connected to such male connection member and at least one wedge member.
The present invention is particularly directed to the locking wedge member portion of the slackless drawbar assembly and to the maintenance of a predetermined height of this locking wedge member during its installation into the slackless drawbar assembly. The locking wedge member performs the function of keeping the drawbar assembly in a slackless condition during service.
The present invention enables positioning of the locking wedge member during installation and it, also, enables tightening of this locking wedge member after the slackless drawbar assembly is installed in the center sill portion of the railway freight car. Another drawback of the prior art is that one could not attach the drawbar assembly unit as a whole to the carrier plate. The present invention provides for a means to overcome these problems in the prior art.